Rome's Economic Revolution

Philip Kay

Description

In this volume, Philip Kay examines economic change in Rome and Italy between the Second Punic War and the middle of the first century BC. He argues that increased inflows of bullion, in particular silver, combined with an expansion of the availability of credit to produce significant growth in monetary liquidity. This, in turn, stimulated market developments, such as investment farming, trade, construction, and manufacturing, and radically changed the composition and scale of the Roman economy.

Using a wide range of evidence and scholarly investigation, Kay demonstrates how Rome, in the second and first centuries BC, became a coherent economic entity experiencing real per capita economic growth. Without an understanding of this economic revolution, the contemporaneous political and cultural changes in Roman society cannot be fully comprehended or explained.

Rome's Economic Revolution

Philip Kay

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements List of Figures List of Tables Abbreviations Introduction 1. Rome and its Economy at the Time of the Second Punic WarPART I: SOURCES OF REVENUE 2. Indemnities and Booty3. Mining revenues4. State Finance and the lex Sempronia de provincia AsiaPART II: THE ROMAN MONEY SUPPLY 5. Cashing in the Plunder6. Credit and Financial IntermediationPART III: THE APPLICATION OF FUNDS 7. Investment Farming and Agricultural Exploitation8. Trade, Capital, and Interconnected Markets9. The Creation of 'Material Complexity'10. After the Credit CrunchPART IV: QUANTIFICATION 11. Forecasting the PastSummary and Conclusions Bibliography Index of Sou General Index